Sex, Class and History : An Experiment in Teaching Economics in an Interdisciplinary Setting

This study reports on various aspects of teaching economics in an interdisciplinary, team-taught course on the changing economic status of women throughout history. The paper provides reflections on a unique experiment in teaching economics to non-majors. By incorporating selected topics of gender economics into this interdisciplinary course, students are exposed to the fundamentals of economic thinking, and are more likely to become economically literate. Faced with the constraints of no prerequisites and the presence of both instructors at all classes, the author implements pedagogical models of teaching adopted from the education field to achieve a desired level of comprehension and integration. This paper outlines the course design, the challenges we faced, and some suggestions of how to improve the outcome in subsequent semesters